Review: Benefit Sun Beam

In my last post, I talked about how I really wanted a product that made my cheeks glow/shimmer/sparkle. Not like I went to some sort of rave and got glittered on, but more like a glow from within sort of a deal.

Well, in the last week and a half, while I was hating on and ranting about Too Faced Candlelight, I lucked upon a product that did EXACTLY what I wanted: Benefit Sun Beam.

I was shopping at Sephora a couple of weeks ago and when I went to check out, the girl checking me out discovered that I'm a Sephora VIB (if you shop at Sephora and don't have a Beauty Insider card, I suggest you get one! Between the point perks and the random exclusive offers for Beauty Insiders and VIBS, I've found quite a few products I've fallen in love with). Apparently, just for shopping at Sephora on that particular Saturday meant that I got a free gift with my purchase!

It was through this VIB only gift that I discovered Sun Beam, a product that I would probably never have tried on my own. I'm so glad that I tried it, because I'm straight up in love!

Sun Beam, like the other liquid highlighters in the Benefit product line, comes in a nail-polish-like bottle. The other two liquid highlighters, Moon Beam and High Beam, come in clear bottles. Sun Beam's bottle is actually golden, so as the product runs out, I won't necessarily be able to tell. Which I'm okay with. My sister Jennifer was deterred from trying this product because of the bottle; she thought that the color of the product would closely match the color of the bottle. That isn't really the case: I've found that the product itself doesn't look nearly as gold as the bottle. It's a lot more wearable than that color gold would be!

You can see how different the colors are: the bottle is a true gold while the highlighter on the brush is much closer to human-skin-color.

The highlighter goes on smoothly, I use my fingers to blend it in.

You can see that my hand looks a little shimmery here! It's definitely a subtle thing (as long as you don't lather it on), and I like it that way! I wanted my cheeks to look like I was glowing, and now they do! Success!

Things I've Hated This Month: July

Generally speaking, I do a LOT of research before buying any makeup or skincare product. Like, hours worth of research, comparisons to other products that are similar, if it's a product that's easy to sample I get samples from Sephora. Basically, I already know how I'm going to feel about a product before I spend the money on it. But some things, you just can't help. These are the things I've hated this month.

Meet one of my family's cats: Felix! Anyways, I bought these two products in the last few weeks, thought that they would become holy grail products, then had them seriously disappoint me. And it wasn't for lack of research/sampling: I researched both on blogs and on Sephora reviews and I tried them both in my local Sephora multiple times. I put so much effort into research that multiples times, I left my dorm and went to Sephora without mascara on so that I could easily try the Benefit BADgal Plum. I swatched Too Faced Candlelight on my hands, my fingers, my face, my arms. Basically, the women who work at my local Sephora thought that I was crazy, but I'll be damned if I purchase a product and end up hating it. I also just feel bad returning things to Sephora. What happens to that unloved, discarded makeup? I think it just gets returned to its company (Benefit, Too Faced) and there it meets its destruction.

I'll start with the BADgal. The plum color is supposed to make your eye color pop more than a black mascara would. Reviews I read on Sephora specifically said it made their hazel eyes look great, and of course I thought, "My eyes are hazel! This will work great!" When I tried it over and over again at Sephora, I just kept thinking that the lighting in Sephora is funny, and that it would look better out in the real world. So I bought it.

Without flash, it honestly looks like plain old black mascara, except for that chunk of extra product on the tip of the brush.

But with flash, it looks amazing! Almost TOO purple.

To show you exactly how inadequate this mascara was, I decided to show what it looked like on. This is me prior to mascara application. All I'm wearing is concealer to cover up my I-look-like-I've-never-slept-in-all-twenty-years-of-my-life issue.

Photo sans flash. Can you guess which eye is wearing the plum mascara and which one is wearing black LORAC Pro mascara? The eye on the left is wearing the Benefit BADgal Plum. The eye on the left has black mascara. 

With the flash, the difference is a little bit more noticeable, but it's just not enough to warrant the purchase of a mascara solely for its color. Additionally, although I have no photos to prove it, if I put ANY of the BADgal Plum on my bottom eyelashes, by the end of the day I had faint purple circles under my eyes. I already have a dark circle issue; I don't need a PURPLE circle issue. And if you don't put this on your bottom lashes, they noticeably look like they don't match: purple top lashes and black bottom lashes do not a good eye make.

The second product I struggled with: Too Faced Candlelight. One of the girls that I work with in my RA job has absolutely glowing cheeks. I think she's actually caught me staring at them before. I need to just suck it up and ask her what product she uses. Regardless, I thought this might be it for about a hot minute. It turns out, this powder is about as illuminating/highlighting as an entirely translucent mattifying powder.

The packaging is adorable, but alas, I don't use/keep crappy products simply because the packaging makes me want to drool.

The powder itself looks to be slightly yellow-cream-ish.

I turned on my flash, in an attempt to make some shimmer show up. It really is a testament to the uselessness of this product that even my camera's flash couldn't pick up a single shimmer.

So I turned the flash off and tried a different angle. From this angle, you can almost see a little bit of the shimmer!

You can't see it at all on my hand, except for maybe that one sparkle down in the bottom left hand corner. I won't bother with showing it to you on my face, because there's just no difference between wearing this product and not wearing it.

Needless to say, both of these products are going back to Sephora this weekend. I've come home to east Tennessee to hang out with my mom and sister/celebrate one of my best friend's 21st birthdays. Jen (my sister) and I have already gone to Ulta and our local JCPenny Sephora, we'll go to the Sephora in the mall on Monday, most likely! There will be plenty of new products for me to play with.

Lush BB Seaweed Fresh Face Mask

A couple of weeks ago I visited a friend in St Louis, and I picked up this Fresh Face Mask at a mall lucky enough to have a a Lush!!

I've used it a couple of times, this time being the third, and I think there's enough product in there for one more mask in a couple of days! I don't mind paying $6.95 for four uses.

Lush describes this mask: BB Seaweed is a best-seller for its ability to turn every rough patch into smooth, supple skin. No surprises here, BB Seaweed is packed full of none other than the ocean greenery itself! Seven pounds of it in each batch, in fact. Finely ground almonds gently slough away dry skin, rose absolute balances skin tone and organic extra virgin olive oil moisturizes.

I think this mask was the perfect introduction to the Lush Fresh Face Mask line! It smells delicious, and just like the description, it moisturizes my face and doesn't bother my skin at all. Additionally, I love that you have to refrigerate these masks: putting something chilly on my face just feels great! Lush suggests washing it off after 10 minutes, I usually leave mine on for between 15 and 20 minutes.

It's thick, sort of oatmeal colored, with chunks of seaweed and ground almond. Because it's aim is to soften skin, I don't apply it as a spot treatment mask, instead I go with a all-over the face method.

I've heard people complain that it flakes off and is generally messy, but I disagree entirely. This mask is chunky, without a doubt. But as long as you're careful applying it (as in, not rushing it), the seaweed chunks get attached enough to your face that they don't fall off during the drying process.

I recommend avoiding getting this stuff in your hair. That's particularly difficult for me because I sort of have baby hairs everywhere, as you can see in the photo of my whole face. Usually I use a hair band to hold back those baby hairs, but I forgot this time. I've also tried to avoid my eyebrows.

Here's a photo of the same area right before I rinsed the mask off. I think the color of the mask changes a bit as it dries; it becomes a little bit more yellow. I don't wait for it to fully dry before I remove it, I think it would be too difficult to wash off if it dried completely. As is, I sort of use it as a semi-exfoliator. The ground almond works to slough off any dead skin.

Overall, I've loved using this mask. It's really gentle and has definitely softened my skin. Next time I'm lucky enough to happen upon a lush store (and have a cooler to transport a Fresh Face Mask back to Memphis), I'm definitely going to try either the Cupcake mask or the Cosmetic Warrior mask.

Tarte Aqualillies for Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Eye & Cheek Palette

I purchased this palette months ago, but I couldn't stand not reviewing it, it's that awesome! That being said, if you're lucky enough to happen upon it in the real world, BUY IT. It's sold out online at Sephora, Tarte, and Ulta, and I haven't seen it in stores in at least a few weeks.

The circular palette comes in this adorable packaging, honestly, I think at least 30% of the reason I bought the palette at all was the gorgeous packaging/design of the palette itself. 

It came along with these "look" ideas, to help you figure out how to do your makeup. Honestly, I don't find them useful. I prefer to wing it and figure out what works best on my own. 

The colors of the palette: the blush in the center is called captivating. It's a matte corally-pink color. The highlighter in the upper left is champagne.  The bronzer is called park ave princess. 

The beauty of this palette in the sunlight. The blue/orange/gold is just such a great combination.

I know that when I started looking into purchasing this palette, my sister and I went back and forth on the shape choice. Circular makes it a little bit more difficult to store, I guess, but I don't particularly have a problem with it. I store my palettes between two small sets of plastic drawers (they keep the palettes from falling over) and I anchor this one down (so it doesn't go rolling off my dresser) by putting my Naked Basics palette in front of it.

Silly me, I forgot to swatch the blush...

I like this highlighter (champagne) a lot more than pink-based ones. The bronzer, park ave princess, is very buttery and pigmented, but if you're careful, it ends up looking beautiful! 

The eyeshadows, from left to right: hammock, bikini, barefoot, parasol, sundeck, and poolside. Hammock and sundeck are matte, the others shimmery, with bikini and poolside having a sort of duo-chrome effect. Bikini is a green/pink duo-chrome and poolside is a blue/gold duo-chrome. I was really nervous to use poolside, that color of bright blue is flattering on very few, but poolside turned out to be absolutely amazing because it is a sort of duo-chrome and the blue color doesn't really come across that strongly. If you're looking for true-to-the-pan color payoff, though, poolside might disappoint.

I think overall the only color in the whole palette that has disappointed me is hammock. It applies sort of unevenly, and when blending with the other colors it tends to look sort of ashy/grey.

My dorm room, living it up in the background.

I promise that in real life, my nose doesn't look quite that looming.
Right now, though, it's scaring the living daylights out of me.

I Dream of Lush

Have you ever lived in a city (or state) that lacks a store that you absolutely NEED in your life? Well, that's my relationship with Lush.

I actually dream of getting to walk into a Lush, of buying their bath bombs, of smelling their products before I have to buy them online. I'm borderline haunted by this store, darnit.

Thus, I've resorted to every method possible to fuel my Lush desire, without actually driving the 4+ hours to get to the closest one. I went to St Louis last weekend, bought a Fresh Face Mask (BB Seaweed, I'm going to write of review of it later this week), and put it in a cooler filled with ice in order to drive it back to Memphis. The fact that I can't have Fresh Face Masks shipped from their online website (because they need to stay refrigerated) upsets me to a level I just can't explain.

This is a stock photo, but I'll write a real review later this week when I use up the last of my BB Seaweed!

I've also taken to ordering a lot of Lush products online/forcing family members to go to Lush stores when they're in cities lucky enough to have a Lush. I'll review my latest lush stash when it comes in the mail!

I just wish I had more Bath Bombs in my life.

My Nails Today: Polkadots

Partly because I love having painted nails and partly because of a freak accident (I painted my nails green a couple of weeks ago and it left my nails hardcore stained yellow), I've been painting my nails with significant frequency.

Here's my manicure right now, inspired by a similar one my sister sent me a picture of today.

I always use my go-to base coat: Essie's First Base Base Coat. Then there are two coats of Essie's Big Spender (a polish I got from my sister in a trade).

Another polish I got in that trade was this white Julep color, Eileen. It's from the Trina Turk Fall 2012 Collection. 

I finished off this particular manicure with Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat. I got it on sale for $4.50 because Sephora and OPI are ending their love affair. Seriously, go check out the sale and see what's left! 

I don't usually like matte nail polishes, to me they sort of look like your nails got really scuffed up after you painted them and you didn't bother to fix it with a shiny top coat. But with the pattern of the polkadots, I love the matte look!

I've been sporting this manicure for two days now, and I don't have a single chip! I've also gotten a bunch of compliments on it, mostly from men (interestingly enough)!

Review: Origins GinZing

About a month ago, I was wasting time on various beauty/lifestyle websites (allure.com, marieclaire.com, cosmopolitan.com) and I came across a post that provoked some serious stress in me. It was a post about eye care, particularly at what age a woman should become concerned about their eyes enough to begin regularly using eye cream. The article suggested that women in their 20s start using eye cream. WAIT. IN THEIR 20S?!? I'm in my 20s!!!

Thus, I became way too over-concerned with the state of my eyes. I mean, my God, I had never used an eye cream in my life! Dry skin around the eyes? I still have no idea what that feels like/what the signs of it are.

So I went to Sephora, convinced that any day I would look in the mirror and my eyes would be those of an octogenarian. The very kind sales associate calmed me down, probably halting an epic meltdown, and steered me towards some eye creams she thought would best suit a girl in her (very) early 20s. I left with four samples (Origins GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream, Fresh Lotus Eye Gel, Caudalie Vinosource SOS Morning Eye Rescue, and Korres Wild Rose Instant Brightening Eye Treatment).

Of the four, I decided the Caudalie eye cream had a weird scent that I didn't want near my eyes every day, the Fresh gel also had too strong of a scent (as well as a price point I wasn't comfortable with), and the Korres and Origins were a close enough call that I just flipped a coin, and luck got me the Origins GinZing, which I am wildly happy with. That being said, when I have $35 I'm not immediately doing something with, it'll likely go directly to purchasing the Korres product.

Origins GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream comes in an adorable green Origins box, but I like the color of the glass jar even more. It's sort of a deep, dark-ish orange. It reminds me a lot of a sunset. 

The product itself is slightly shimmery, and a very light champagne pink color. Between the light shimmer and the pigment, it immediately makes my tired eyes look brighter. My favorite thing to do in the morning is apply it to one eye, then just look at the difference between my eyes for a while before applying it to my second eye. 

Overall, I love the eye cream that I chose, and it's definitely helped assuage my concern regarding future crepey eyes. I would definitely recommend it to someone who spends a lot of time studying/living it up late night style. If you're looking for something that has hardcore anti-aging effects, this probably isn't the product for you (or you should use this in the morning and a stronger anti-aging cream at night).

In terms of overall value, it's not cheap, but at the same time, it's priced considerably well for what you get. It's $30 for .5 oz ($60 per oz). For comparison, the Korres Wild Rose Instant Brightening Eye Treatment is $35 for .5 oz ($70 per oz), the Caudalie Vinosource SOS Morning Eye Rescue is $34 for .5 oz ($68 per oz), and the Fresh Lotus Eye Gel is $48 for .5 oz ($94 per oz).